Raising taxes. Fewer teachers. Program cuts. All will be considered by dozens of Jersey Shore school districts trying to account for big losses in state school aid — a financial hit that will sock schools in the fall and continue to wallop them well into the next decade.

Wednesday was the deadline for districts to file new budget plans for the 2018-19 school year, the first in a planned seven-year series of cuts aimed at districts considered "overfunded" by the state, many of them in Ocean and Monmouth counties. Reliance on reserves will soften the blow for many, but school officials said that tack will have less utility beyond the next school year, necessitating more drastic measures.

In Jackson, officials reduced the school budget by $1.35 million for 2018-19, a cut that surprised board members after Gov. Phil Murphy originally promised a hike in state aid. The redistribution — some districts received more money — was pushed by powerful Trenton Democrats, including Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney.

"I do believe this will decimate many, many districts," Superintendent Stephen Genco said Tuesday during a school board meeting attended by about a dozen parents and Jackson Mayor Michael Reina.

Genco said program cuts, teacher layoffs and rising taxes will happen in coming years if the New Jersey legislators make good on a plan to cut millions in state aid from this school and others over the coming decade. Genco said no layoffs or program cuts will happen in the 2018-19 school year.

Jackson is just one of 172 districts in New Jersey where state aid was slashed this year. Similarly situated districts stand to lose more than a half-billion dollars in state aid over the next seven years, by one estimate. Ocean County schools were among the most affected in the state, suffering a net loss of nearly $4.5 million in 2018-19. In contrast, Monmouth County districts, collectively, will experience a net gain of $4.1 million.

Overall, New Jersey will increase aid $68 million, to $8.5 billion, for school districts.

"(We have) made our education system very successful here, (and) we're watching the collapse of it," Sharon Dey, an 11-year member of Jackson's school board, said during a Tuesday board meeting.

Trenton Democrats said these cuts were necessary to redistribute aid from "overfunded" districts that received too much, to districts that have not received their fair share of state support, schools like those in Red Bank Borough, Freehold Borough and Long Branch.

“New Jersey’s education system experienced eight years of neglect during the previous administration, which underfunded our public schools by $9 billion,” Murphy said in a recent statement. "The necessary adjustments we are making ... will bring fairness to the system and ensure our school children receive the quality education they deserve.”

That funding changes, part of the recent budget battles between Sweeney and Murphy, left schools scrambling to trim spending and raiding surplus accounts.

Middletown was left to slice $1.2 million from its annual budget. Toms River pulled $1.2 million from its maintenance account and another $1.15 million from surplus funds to close a $2.3 million budget hole. Freehold Regional also dug into its surplus funds to shrink a nearly $1.3 million budget cut.

Exterior of New Monmouth Elementary School in Middletown, NJ Wednesday April 11, 2018.
Middletown Township Public Schools introduced a draft plan last year to redraw school boundary lines to address overcrowding at some schools and underused space at others. (Photo11: Tanya Breen)

In Middletown, the school board will leave six teaching positions unfilled. New literature textbooks in the high school? Not this year. The board is also paring its staff of security officers scattered throughout the district's 17 schools.

Brick slashed $1.9 million from its budget, filling the hole with surplus money and leaving two supervisory and six teaching positions unfilled.

"I think that this is just the beginning of ... some very difficult decisions that are going to have to be made for this district," Brick school board President Stephanie Wohlrab said Tuesday during a meeting of the board.

Brick Board of Education President Stephanie Wohlrab speaks about the district's state aid concerns in April.(Photo11: David Gard)

The districts facing cuts — which include Lakewood, Asbury Park, Keansburg and Howell, to name a few — were given little time to adjust. The new, lower state aid numbers were delivered to the districts in mid-July, long after schools were required in May to have their annual operating budgets finalized. They had little more than two weeks to meet the Aug. 1 deadline to submit their revised budgets.

"Because the lateness in the game of the budget process, we’re not going to willy-nilly make cuts," said Freehold Regional Superintendent Charles Sampson. “We’re going to manage this year. ... The second year ... is where things start to get dicey.”

Charles Sampson, Superintendent of Schools during Freehold Regional High School District state of the school address held at Howell township administrative complex. Wednesday March 19, 2014 Noah K. Murray/ Special for the Asbury Park Press
ASB 0321 Freehold Schools Address(Photo11: Noah K. Murray, Noah K. Murray)

By the end of those seven years, schools across New Jersey will have seen $600 million reduced from their state aid, according to the Education Law Center, which has advocated for changes in how state aid is distributed.

For Freehold Regional schools, those cuts mean “we’ll be looking at reductions across the board … whether that’s personnel, capital projects (and) transportation," Sampson said of future school years.

Jackson school officials said they are leaving 14 empty positions unfilled this year and have cut back facilities programs and technology improvements. The district will also likely not return surplus money to taxpayers next year, as officials have done in the past, said Genco, Jackson's superintendent.

"It isn't just a school issue," he said. "It's a community issue."

James Edwards, business administrator of Brick Township Public Schools, said the state's school funding formula is seriously flawed, and makes districts like his look artificially wealthy compared with other municipalities in New Jersey. Other towns, he said, are sheltering taxable property behind PILOT programs, or Payment In Lieu Of Taxes.

Brick schools are struggling, blaming a decrease in state aid for large classroom sizes and unfilled positions. It's part of a feeling throughout Jersey Shore school administrators that Murphy has yet to deliver on his promises of increasing state aid. Brick School District's Business Administrator Jim Edwards speaks about the districts concerns. Brick, New Jersey. Monday, April 30, 2018. David Gard /Correspondent(Photo11: David Gard)

"We don't have an expenditure problem," Edwards said Tuesday night during a meeting of the Brick Board of Education.

In fact, according to the Education Law Center, Brick schools need to spend $130 more per pupil per year to thoroughly educate the district's 8,600 students.

State aid has dropped nearly $4 million for Brick schools since 2009, according to the Education Law Center. Over the same period, the local tax levy climbed from $88.6 million to $103 million, according to the law center.

Edwards called the state aid cuts "draconian" and said the school is hindered from raising local taxes fast enough to make up the loss.

"The funding formula that's currently in place is not fair for Brick," Edwards said.

School districts across New Jersey are required by law to limit most of their tax levy increases to 2 percent annually.

School officials expect the situation to get more dire in 2019, when surplus accounts are depleted and schools are left with little choice but to cut staffs and programs.

"I am praying it's not seven (years of cuts), because I know the impact this will have on kids," Brick school board member John Lamela said during the board's Tuesday budget meeting. Lamela also serves as vice principal of Jackson's Christa McAuliffe Middle School.

"I'm hoping that logical heads prevail and they see the damage this is causing," he said. "(But) I don't think it's going to end, and I'm scared."